Juliana Ossa kept hitting the alligator on the head in a desperate bid to save her own life.
A brave 10-year-old girl is lucky to be alive after successfully fending off an alligator that attacked her in Orlando over the weekend.
Read: Florida's Alligator Encounters Have Led to a Loss of Limbs, but Rarely Death
Little Juliana Ossa knew exactly what to do to save her life.
“I was in the water and there was a mean nine-foot gator biting my leg,” she told Inside Edition. "The alligator grabbed my leg, I tried hitting it to release me but it didn't work."
The situation happened Saturday at Mary Jane Lake, about 26 miles from Disney World. She was swimming in just a foot of water when the gator attacked.
She not only punched the beast in the nose, Ossa actually shoved her two little fingers into the gator's nostrils and pried his mouth open.
Thanks to what she learned at a nearby alligator park, Gatorland, the young lady knew how to handle herself.
"I used what they taught me at Gatorland, so I put my two fingers up its nostrils and it couldn't breath and had to breath from its mouth and then let my leg out," she said. "The gator didn't do anything because he was too busy biting my leg and too busy with his claws in the sand. He didn't have any attack moves to take out my fingers."
"At 10 years old, to have that much wherewithal to do what she did is incredible. We are so proud of her that she got out of there with as little damage as she got," said Tim Williams of Gatorland.
Read: Man Describes 1986 Gator Attack at Disney Resort: 'I Started Kicking at the Alligator's Head'
If you come in contact with an alligator, expert Jordon Munns told Inside Edition that you want to poke him in the eye or the ear and you want to make as much noise as possible.
"Gators are afraid of humans," he said. "If you are screaming and making as much scene as possible while doing these things, there is a good chance the alligator is going to [think]: 'I am used to eating things that don't fight back,' and let go of you."
The young girl had gotten stiches on her leg and is on the mend.
Park officials say they're keeping the waterfront areas closed this week out of an abundance of caution.
Watch: Alligator Restrained by 2 Pairs of Handcuffs After It's Caught Breaking Into a Home
